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No. 332,981. Zy Patented Dec. 22,-1885.

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l BY 9 ATTORNEYS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR lWI. WVELLINGTON, OF NElV-YORK, N. Y.

CAR-TRUCK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 332,981, dated December 22, 1885.

Application filed May 9, 1885. Serial No. 164,900. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that LARTHUR M. WELLING TON, of the city, county, and State of New .York, have invented a new Improvement in Check-Chains for Railway-Trucks, of which the following is afull, clear, and exact description.

This invention consists ina novel check-rod and link attachment for railway-trucks, appli- I cable to both freight and passenger cars.

The object of my invention will be best explained by the following brief statement: As check -chains are ordinarily applied to the trucks and car-bodies of railway-vehicles, the chains have much greater slack given them, in order to give them a proper angle and utilize their strength when brought to a bearing,than is necessary to provide for the swiveling of the trucks to enable the car to pass over curves of the ordinary or usual radii encountered in regular service on the track. As now' commonly attached, the chains do not come to a bearing until the truck has slewed from ten to fourteen inches or more out of line, while the amount of slack for which there is legitimate use is only one-fourth to one-twentieth of an inch, or thereabout, per degree of the curve. This excessive slack of the check-chains is a frequent cause of accident; but as they have been heretofore ordinarily attached almost verticallyit cannot be avoided or reduced to the absolute needs in actual service on the customary curvatures of the track.

My invention consists in a check-chain construoted and applied, substantially as hereinafter described and claimed, to absolutely prevent the swiveling of the truck through a greater angle than is necessary to enable the car to pass through or over curves of such ordinary radii as are encountered in regular or daily service, thus doing away with the evils incidental to check-chains having an excessive amount of slack.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both the figures.

Figure 1 represents a vertical transverse section of a passengar-car and one of its trucks, in part, with myimproved check-chain attachment applied. Fig. 2 is a partly-broken side iew of a freight-car and one of its trucks, in

part, with the improved check-chain attachmentapplied longitudinally thereto instead of transversely, as in the case of the passengercar.

Referring, in the firstinstance, more particularly to Fig. 1, A indicates a passenger-car body, and B one of its trucks. The dot-ted lines at the right and left of said figure indicate the almost-vertical check-chains as ordinarily used, and which have necessarily an excessive amount of slack. In the place of such check-chains, I connect the truck and car-body with check-chains or flexible attachments arranged only slightly oblique to a horizontal position, and running either from thesidesills or other parts on one side of the center line of the truck to an attachment on the opposite side of the car-body, as shownin Fig. 1, or from the end of the car-body to the center line, or thereabout, of the truck, as shown in Fig. 2. These flexible connections might be actual chains; but I prefer to make themof rod and link shape combined. Thus in Fig. 1, attached to either the inner or outer longitudinal sills, b b, of the car-body A, on opposite sides of its longitudinal center line, are eyes or hooks c c, from each of which is a link, d, that connects with one end of a rod, 6. This rod connects in turn at its opposite end with an eye or book, f, attached to the side or cross pieces of the truck on the opposite side from that on which the link (I connects. These transversely-arranged links and rods (1 e, which in eflect form a check-chain, are slightly flexed between their connections with the car body and truck, to allow of a play of from two to threeinches for passenger-cars before either of said chains comes to a hearing, this play being intended and adjusted to allow free slewingof the truck in passing around ordinary curvesonly in regular service.

Exceptionallysharp curves in yards or city streets require the removal of the check-chains to permit passage, and to this end the hookf should be so formed as to permit ready removal.

In Fig. 2 of the drawings the same principle applied to a freightcar is carried out in substantially the same manner; but in this case, in order to afford more favorable leverage, each check-chain is arranged to occupy a longitudinal instead of a transverse position relatively to the car. Thus each link-and-rod connection d e is arranged, as in the other case, slightly oblique to a horizontal position, and flexed to give a play for curves varying from fifteen to twenty degrees in slewing of the truck of three-fourths to one inch only, or whatever the regular curves of the truck may require before the chains are brought to a bearing, and the connection is established by uniting its link d with an eye or hook, c, on the end sill, b, or other equivalent portion of the car-body A, and its rod 6 with an eye or hook, f, on the side frame of the truck B, in or near a central transverse line thereof. The play,of course, will vary with the dimensions of the car and truck.

Instead of the check-chains connecting directly with the end sill of the car-body, they may be connected by a bracket therewith, or otherwise, and instead of the hookfand double links d e, a single hook-ended bar may be carried over the truck-loolster B, simply resting thereon, or be connected with an eye therein.

In each of these ch eck-chain attachments the swiveling of the truck is restricted to a very small are, only sufficient to allow of the passage of the truck with the car-body it carries around or over the ordinarycurvatures of the track before the checkchains are brought to a bearing.

When it is required to travel around sharper curves-as in passing onto and oif sidingsthen the chains should be released from their attachment.

The invention is equally applicable to the swiveling trucks of locomotives.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a check rod or link connection for railway-trucks, the combination of the oblique flexed link-and-rod connection d 6 with the hooks or fasteniugs c f, applied, respectively, to the body and truck, substantially as shown and described, and for the purpose or purposes herein set forth.

ARTHUR M. WELLINGTON.

Witnesses:

W. H. BOARDMAN, H. KLONINGER. 

